INDIANAPOLIS – Pippa Mann and Zach Veach know the importance of science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics in racing. It’s why the Verizon IndyCar Series drivers were happy to share their experiences with more than 1,300 Indiana middle and high school students as part of the Honda STEAM Connections Tour this week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The tour, run in conjunction with the fifth annual Purdue M-STEM3 500 Student Fair, gave students the opportunity to have hands-on experiences with different exhibits ranging from welding simulations to 3D printing to DNA extraction from strawberries. The collaboration between Honda and Purdue encourages students to pursue educations and careers in STEAM disciplines.
Mann spoke to many middle students during Tuesday’s portion of the program before practicing in her No. 63 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. She brought along her Honda Performance Development engineer, Hiro Yamaguchi, who last year helped Mann turn a lap of more than 230 mph in Indianapolis 500 practice.
Mann was candid about what Yamaguchi and the other engineers on a team’s pit stand can see while she is driving.
“He’s keeping an eye on the oil temperature, the water temperature, the oil pressure, the water pressure, everything that I’m doing in the car,” Mann told the students. “We always talk about those different (turbocharger) boost settings I have. Sometimes when I feel really good and I go to turn it up, I hear, ‘Hey Pippa, I saw that! Put that back!’”
Veach spoke with high school students during Wednesday’s portion of the program before he took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval to practice in the No. 26 Relay Group 1001 Honda for Andretti Autosport.
“There’s so much driver preference,” Veach said. “From how I like the car to accelerate when I’m using the gas pedal to how clean the upshifts and downshifts are and how much power I’m feeling from the engine specifically on a given day because as the weather changes, so does the power of the engine."
Tasher Willet, Veach’s HPD engineer, joined him for the talk with students.
“I’ve got to go sift through all the data that we record while he’s on track and look for problems that I can fix with the changes that I can make to the engine,” Willet said. “STEM is the only reason I’m able to recognize those things, the ability to say, ‘I need to do this map calculation on the fly in my head.’
“Or I need to look for this type of a response from the engine (when the car is on track) that tells me ‘Oh, maybe this parameter can make it a little bit better,’ and if I don’t have the intuitive knowledge of all of the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math), I won’t be able to improve his engine to the level that he needs it to perform.”
Rick Rosebrough, the principal at nearby Speedway Junior High School, praised the STEAM initiative for getting students involved, but also noted the added benefit of bringing the students to the track.
“I think besides the STEM relationship, the kids getting introduced to it, for us it’s a community kind of a building thing,” said Rosebrough. "Because I’m not sure there’s another school in the state or maybe nation that can literally get a police escort and walk about one mile to the greatest racetrack in the world as a group and pull it off.”
